The Fearless Hyena (1979)

Jackie punches someone so hard in the balls that he dies.

At its core, The Fearless Hyena is an overly familiar traditional kung fu revenge story, but, being that this is Jackie Chan's directorial debut, you get the added treat of watching him figure himself out in real time. Showcasing his own brand of charm, naivety and bravado in a film that blends traditional martial arts storytelling with the comedic, expressive style that would later define his career. Split pretty much straight down the middle in terms of tone, shifting between slapstick humour and surprisingly brutal violence, it shows Jackie experimenting with a formula he hadn't fully perfected yet. Fight-wise, the choreography is intricate and very well performed, boasting a beautifully inventive chopstick food fight and Jackie defeating the villain by punching him in the balls so hard that he dies, which is worthy of 5 stars all on its own. It helps that the cast is populated with a variety of interesting characters, led by a great turn from James Tien as Chan's elderly master, but, of course, the real star of the show is Chan himself. Unfortunately, it seems he hasn’t fully freed himself from Lo Wei quite yet as there is a lot of Wei's influence still present; as it's clear this wasn't a big-budget or heavily refined production, Wei's writing is more prevalent than Chan's. But there’s definitely a charm in that roughness; it feels scrappy, personal and driven by a creative ambition of expression, so while The Fearless Hyena isn’t Jackie's best film, it is an important one, less about perfection and more about watching the blueprint of something great being built. Capturing him at a turning point, transitioning from a traditional martial arts actor into the genre-defining star he would become.

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